2013 Hobbit Promotion

Sydney Promotion of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey DVD release

Video interviews with Richard Armitage to promote the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey DVD in Australia. These interviews all took place from 30th April to 1st May 2013. Print and online interviews are on the Interviews page.

29 May 2013 Popcorn Taxi have posted a 25 minute video of the Q&A with Richard that took place on 1st May in Sydney. Watch on youtube. They posted a teaser clip on 6 May 2013, on their Facebook page.

09 May 2013 IGN Australia: Richard talks about audience reaction to Thorin, his eagerness to finally see what Smaug looks like and Thorin's development in the next few films. Also on youtube.

03 May 2013 CNET Australia have published an 11m 50s video interview with Richard, in which he gives detailed answers to many questions we've heard before, but there is also a comment about sustainable energy.

03 May 2013 SFTV's GO POP: this is a really great interview, lots of fun and full of NEW questions! Includes a hug with Kermit and instructions on how to walk like a dwarf. This edited video has an introduction by Richard at the start (and he appears again at 3m 50s).

01 May 2013 Graffiti with punctuation have a picture of Richard with their presenter Blake Howard with a download link to an excellent podcast. Well worth a listen!

30 Apr 2013 Dan and Maz on 2dayFM audio only ia today. You can listen to the audio clips and see a picture of Dan and Maz with Richard, or download here: part 1 and part 2.

UK Press Junket to promote the DVD and Bluray

Video interviews with Richard Armitage, James Nesbitt and Andy Serkis to promote the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey DVD in the UK. These interviews all took place on 6th and 7th March 2013 but were often released later to coincide with the release of the DVD in the UK. Print and online interviews are on the Interviews page.

02 Apr 2013 IGN interview: with Richard, James and Andy. Richard hints that there may be more filming to do this summer with the dragon, played via performance capture by Benedict Cumberbatch. Also on youtube.

30 Mar 2013 iTunes interview: Andy Serkis interviews Richard Armitage and James Nesbitt. Or here is a list of interviews via iTunes with German subtitles. You will need to have iTunes installed in order to see these, which include a trailer, high quality and low quality versions of the interview and both HQ and LQ versions of the thirty minute documentary 'A Hobbit's Tale'.

29 Mar 2013 Bin Weevils interview: an interview with Richard answering questions posed by children. It's lots of fun and includes a Gandalf impersonation! They also interviewed James Nesbitt and Andy Serkis, read more here on the Bin Weevils site.

23 Mar 2013 MSN Movies interviews James Nesbitt and Richard Armitage (from 53 seconds). Richard tells us his favourite quote from the film and what inspires him. Note: this link will not work on a mobile phone or in some countries - try this link instead.

19 Mar 2013 Entertainment Celebrity Extra interviewed Andy, Richard and James in London and asked them how their lives have changed since being cast in The Hobbit and whether they have bought anything expensive with their Hobbit pay cheque.

18 Mar 2013 Greendragon from TheOneRing.net's interview with Richard in London. Most of the interview is concerned with taking on the mantle of playing Thorin, but he also states that nothing else is lined up for him yet after filming finishes on The Hobbit in New Zealand this summer.

13 Mar 2013 BBC Radio Leicester audio interview including Richard's views of the discovery of Richard III and possible plans for a stage or screen version of Richard III's life. To download the interview, right-mouse click (Ctrl-click if you're using a Mac) and choose Save. Transcript here.

10 Mar 2013 New videos on Getty.co.uk: eight new video clips of Richard taken over the last few days as he promotes the Hobbit DVD, including a clip of him entering the BBC radio studios in London. Scroll down to the second row, then click a video to watch. Other clips on that page include footage from the Strike Back premiere, the 2010 BAFTA awards red carpet and the UK Hobbit premiere in London. If you have difficulty playing these videos and it could be a Quicktime issue - check your version of Quicktime and Internet Explorer, or use another internet browser like Chrome or Firefox.

07 Mar 2013 HD interview on Lorraine's show: in a live interview on Lorraine's show on 7th March, Richard was there to promote The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey DVD/Bluray and he also talked a little about working on Black Sky. Pictures from the show are in the Hobbit DVD Promo March 2013 gallery.

2012 Hobbit Promotion

(list incomplete - still updating)

Video interviews that took place during the December 2012 Hobbit promotion in Wellington, Tokyo, Toronto, New York and London. These interviews are in chronological order according to when they took place. Print interviews are on the Interviews page and live TV interviews and appearances at the various premieres are on the Hobbit Premieres 2012 page.

Wellington Video Interviews

02 Jan 2013 A Hobbit special from the Warner channel in Brazil: the presenter, Cindy Taylor, speaks Spanish and English to the cast and there are Portuguese subtitles for the Brazilian viewers of this show. The video is not the best quality but you can see some behind the scenes clips of the cast that haven't been shown before. Richard talks about playing Thorin at 3m 34s and 5m 25s.

31 Dec 2012 ZMTV: Richard deflects the 'hot dwarf' question and then talks about the impact of the Lord of the Rings legacy on the Hobbit trilogy.

18 Dec 2012 There are two new videos from Roadshow Films on youtube from the Wellington press junket the day before the world premiere of The Hobbit.In this video, Richard, Martin and Andy are asked the usual questions about the film but it's a long clip at 11 minutes and there's some interesting new answers. This video shows Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens talking about writing the script and introducing new and old characters into the film. After 6 minutes into the clip they talk about casting Richard and what he has brought to the role of Thorin.

07 Dec 2012 Ann Curry's interview for the TODAY show: a very funny interview with Richard, Hugo Weaving (Elrond), Andy Serkis (Gollum), Martin Freeman (Bilbo) and Elijah Wood (Frodo), and it took place at Zealandia near Wellington, on 26 November. Also on youtube.

27 Nov 2012 3news.co.nz's report and interviews with Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, Andy Serkis, Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage. Richard states that his life has already changed even though the film has not yet been released.

thanks to Bccmee for posting the clip on the ARIA Awards stage on youtube.

a brief clip of Richard, Martin and Andy speaking to an interviewer on the 'black' carpet at 2m32s on this msn site.

The first pictures of Richard on stage came from @speedmouse on twitter who had a fantastic seat close to the stage and took this picture and this one. Many thanks to her for letting me share on the site.

Japanese Video Interviews

08 May 2013 Richard Armitage appears with Martin Freeman at 3 minutes in this Japanese DVD promo on youtube. A brief comment by Richard followed by Martin talking about the camaraderie amongst the cast of The Hobbit.

21 Feb 2013 Here's a new short interview with Richard from the Japanese press junket. The question half way through is asking 'When do you feel most relaxed?' The interview with Martin Freeman is here.

05 Jan 2013 This clip of the Hobbit cast interviewed on Japanese Mezamashi-TV shows Richard at 5 minutes. He is asked 'Did Peter Jackson ask you to perform any fighting scenes you thought impossible?' and replies 'Every day!'

13 Dec 2012 10 second clip of Martin and Richard for Japanese Facebook visitors is very cute. Thanks to Mia. The last word is the Japanese FB version of "likes" and also means "sounds good".

Toronto Video Interviews - all took place 3 Dec 2012

Union Station

Richard appeared at Union Station at 7.00am where an installation for the film was be unveiled. KISS radio was there to hand out 100 passes to attend the premiere that night. More information on this celebrity site.

This video by Warner Bros. Toronto shows how The Hobbit has taken over Union Station, Toronto and there are clips of Richard Armitage plus dramatic music! Watch on youtube.

This 'headcam' interview in Union Station by Kiss 92.5 radio presenter Damnit Maurie. Richard's tells us that he was given several gifts from The Hobbit: Orcrist, the Oakenshield, his map to Erebor and Thorin's key AND a little Thorin lego minifigure!

Canada AM

Richard appeared on Canada AM on the 11th December, in an interview that was recorded when he visited Toronto on the 3rd.

On living with the character of Thorin all day: "I found that I needed to stay with the character pretty much all day and concentrate pretty hard, because you never really knew when you're going to be called to the set and to be asked to do something, because Peter just works quite organically and he likes to keep cameras rolling. The level of stamina was the highest I've ever worked at."

And on making the jump to international star: "It's so interesting because going to the cities and seeing the fans, that's the best part of it for me because you make this film, obviously you don't make it for yourself, and when you walk through the red carpet in Tokyo and you see all these people dressed up as the characters and they're so excited about it. That to me is what it's all about."

Richard was interviewed on the Marilyn Denis show on 3rd December. The show is taped live at 10.00am in Toronto.The show is now available to watch online here or you can watch the clip I have uploaded to youtube.

3. Mose Persico for CTV News: a brief interview. We were told (via twitter) that more would follow but this has yet to surface.

City TV

City TV interview: shows Richard interviewed outside the Scotiabank theatre where the Toronto premiere of The Hobbit took place later that day.

680 News radio

680 News radio interview – download mp3 here. Richard talks once again about his Hobbit stage role as an elf as a child inBirmingham UK, how a green screen was not as distracting as he thought it might be, what it was like to work with Sir Ian McKellen and Martin Freeman, and what the novel of The Hobbit means to him.

George Stroumboulopoulos's show

Richard appeared on George Stroumboulopoulos's TV show in Toronto on Monday 3rd December at 3.15pm. The show was broadcast on Wednesday 12th December. This clip from George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight which wasn't in the show, has been uploaded to youtube by the show's production team and is a clip of Richard talking about filming The Hobbitat 48 frames per second.

31 Mar 2013 Steven Samblis' interview with Richard took place in New York during the December Hobbit promotion and is free to watch via the iTunes store (podcasts). It is also on youtube.

04 Jan 2013 Anna Wendzikowska from the Polish breakfast TV show, Dzien Dobry TVN: watch the second video on the page (click full screen to enlarge). An interview in New York broadcast on 27 December 2012 and dubbed in Polish. It's not easy to hear the English under the dubbing so non-Polish speakers can listen to the video and read my transcript here - hopefully not too many mistakes!

03 Jan 2013 Buzzine.com's interview with Richard and cast members during the US press junket is here on youtube. Richard appears at 1m 15s. The full written article from these interviews appears here on Buzzine.com.

30 Dec 2012 In this video interview on EOnline!, which took place at the New York press junket, Richard gives an excellent answer to the question of why some of the dwarves in The Hobbit don't all look like Gimli from Lord of the Rings.

"It's such an interesting debate isn't it, because if you think about the human face, how many faces, how many types of face do you see in the human race? How many different heights...we're all part of the same race

"When I was eleven I read The Hobbit and I didn't really re-read it until this role came along, so I was forty when I looked at it again and it was interesting to have both my childhood memories of it and my new memories as an adult of it and try and assimilate where they would be. The important memories of what I felt when I was a child were the things that I was listening to."

14 Dec 2012 Anderson Live show: Richard appeared on Anderson Live in NYC with Sir Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis. The show was taped and was broadcast on Friday 14 December. Pictures from this interview are in the New York Promotion gallery.

12 Dec 2012 Allocine.fr have posted this video interview with Richard and other cast members from the NY press junket.

12 Dec 2012 Yahoo Movies have a video clip with all the cast, Peter Jackson and Joe Letteri, Visual Effects Supervisor. Richard only appears for a few seconds at 3m 11s, but there are interesting comments from all the interviewees.

Richard: "I think we're all a little bit mad in this business. You have to be a bit crazy to work like this."

12 Dec 2012 MonsieurHollywood.com some new and interesting responses to playing a role that looks and behaves nothing like himself.

"I like to leave most of myself outside the door...it's something that I've excepted as I've got older that you do have to bring part of yourself to the character, you can't leave all of yourself behind, but I do like it when people don't recognise me inside a role, I enjoy that."

12 Dec 2012 Bonnie Laufer of Tribute.ca interviewed Richard during the press junket in New York.

"Both Peter and Andy, when it came to the physical work, would allow me to do most of the stunts myself, which was great for me and it's not about any kind of bravado it was because when you do all of the stunts it gets you closer to the character you feel like you really are playing the character. I hated handing it over to somebody else." Richard names James Stewart and Gary Oldman as actors who have inspired him.

11 Dec 2012 Collider interviewed Richard at the NY press junket, in which he says he's looking forward to growing the beard again when they go back to filming the battle scene next year. (Also here with Portuguese subtitles).

"...we've got to finish this story. It's the peak of Thorin's story for me, it's where he absolutely is redeemed so we need to go to that place and find it."

Excerpts of Richard at the UK press conference were posted in the news 16 December, but these clips are incorporated into a larger clip from the conference here on youtube courtesy of RedCarpetNewsTV. The full playlist of press conference clips is here.

UK Video Interviews

30 Dec 2012 Another interview from the UK press junket has surfaced with a Danish interviewer from Kino.dk.

When asked whether Sean Bean or Viggo Mortensen's performances in Lord of the Rings influenced him: "No I didn't really look to anything other than the book for inspiration, I mean I'm always inspired by other actors and I'm inspired by both Sean and Viggo for their work in Lord of the Rings. Their work has so much impact, it's not useful actually to create a new character from pieces of other actor's work, but really Tolkien gives so much it was actually impossible to put anything in there because I still couldn't get enough out of his literary work..." Thanks to Marianne.

"I was really pleased that they'd been brave enough to use one of Tolkien's songs...I was embracing it and looking forward to it and he also describes the sound that a dwarf makes when he sings. He calls it the deep-throated singing of the dwarves, so I knew the kind of sound that I wanted to create and I worked on the song for a few days and we found a pitch which resonated in the belly rather than the throat. I listened to a lot of Russian choral music to find a sound that was specific...I think it's a mantra and it's almost like a way of seducing Bilbo to come on the quest with us because we know that he's reticent."

"I've never travelled so far in my life and felt more at home. There's something about New Zealand and the Kiwi culture which makes you feel comfortable and relaxed and they're the friendliest, loveliest people you could ever meet so we were really made to feel like one of the family, and the whole shoot was a sort of family affair. I'm missing New Zealand now..."

22 Dec 2012 Badtaste.it interview also here on youtube. Some new information in this interview about the Misty Mountains song and the fact that Fran Walsh wrote the tune and he comments on his Lego figure.

Richard: "I got through the Silmarillion before I went down there. I did pick and choose what I was going to look at because it's extensive. What I love about it is, it's Tolkien refusing to say this is fantasy, he wants legend, he wants it to feel like history. So you go there and you look for your character and you look for the roots of your race, which I did for Thorin and the dwarves..."

On working with dwarves and elves and and off camera: "We can talk to elves off camera it's just we don't like doing that, because elves are strange beings who float around in silvery gowns and dwarves like to drink and throw food around, so we're poles apart really."

14 Dec 2012 Empire's video interview with Richard: click 'Richard Armitage Interview' under the clip to view. He talks about not getting tattoos, but having rings made for all the cast instead.

14 Dec 2012 Empire magazine podcast with Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis. The chat with the cast starts at 14m 10s with Andy Serkis, and then Richard's interview starts at 42m 42s. Martin's interview is at 1hr 17m.

Richard talks about his role as an elf in the stage production of The Hobbitwhen he was a child, reading The Hobbit novel while filming Captain America, auditioning for the role of Thorin, the detail in the costume, finding the complexities inside of Thorin, what he thought about singing the Misty Mountains song and the production's obsession with keeping the scripts secret. Then he talks about filming some stunts on Black Sky and what his line was in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, which sadly was cut. Richard says he cannot find himself in the movie, however many fans have found him and posted pictures online. My Star Wars gallery here.

14 Dec 2012 Entertainment.ie: another new video interview with Richard during the UK press junket. Richard talks about dreaming of tunnels inside the Lonely Mountain, the cameraderie between the dwarves and feeling like he'd missed out on the party in Bag End, although all the dwarves did partake in an improvised night in the woods as a bonding exercise as part of the Boot Camp. Richard reveals a spoiler about the ending of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in the last question at 3m 40s.

13 Dec 2012 Alison Hammond of ITV's This Morning is known for making her interviewees laugh and Richard is no exception. A clip from yesterday's show with many of the cast and Peter Jackson has been uploaded by danielsredluna. Richard appears at 50 seconds and again at 6m 5s.

13 Dec 2012 The Guardian interviewed the cast of The Hobbit and Richard talks about transforming physically and emotionally for the 'perfect role' of Thorin, from 2m 05s.

13 Dec 2012 A video interview from Film.it with Richard at the UK press junket is here on youtube.

In answering what was the craziest thing he did to prepare for the role..."I think the craziest thing I used to do is drive my car around Wellington with a Maori chant playing on the radio, and I used to scream very loudly so that I could get a kind of gravelly sound going in my voice, and the reason I used to do it in the car was because I didn't want to disturb the neighbours." Thanks to Marisa and also for this Hobbit Special by Sky Cinema Italy on youtube which is entirely in Italian. It's 15 minutes long and there are lots of behind the scenes clips and interviews.

13 Dec 2012 This video showing the Portuguese journalist Mário Augusto on The Hobbit set is obviously in Portuguese but the actors' interviews are subtitled. Richard appears at 6m 40s talking about the adventure of filming in New Zealand and Richard is mentioned by Adam Brown, Aidan Turner and Dean O'Gorman at 17 minutes.

"...and then the big phone call, which is the one you wait for, well, your entire career, when your agent says you're Peter Jackson's first choice to play Thorin Oakenshield...it's a pretty good day in an actor's life."

On the songs in The Hobbit: "I was really pleased that they were going to embrace at least one of the songs and the fact that they chose the dwarf song, a very kind of solemn, reverential, sacred song which described claiming back their home, was really important as part of the preparation. And actually I used the song...I'd sort of hum the tune to myself when we were walking around set, it became like a mantra, so it was a real privilege to record that and use it in the film."

NZ Tourist Board video

Behind the Scenes Videos

1. A 13 minute behind the scenes video of The Hobbit is here on youtube. Plenty of spoilers here, new clips from the films and most of the actors adding commentary. Here are a few screencaps of Richard behind the scenes:

Rise Up Christchurch Telethon Video

21 May 2011 A funny video by some of the dwarves, including Richard, to encourage people to donate to the Rise Up Christchurch charity telethon event, in aid of restoring the town of Christchurch after the earthquake on 22 February 2011.

A longer report from stuff.co.nz quotes Richard: 10.38am: Richard Armitage says he played an elf in a stage production of The Hobbit when he was a child and Gollum was a paper mâché puppet. Says the 3D aspect is like working on Avatar.

Fictional Frontiers, a show on a radio station based in Philadelphia, interviewed Larry Curtis, senior contributor to TORn (www.theonering.net). They discussed the casting Richard Armitage as Thorin and you can listen to the extract here:

Thought you’d like to know so you can add it to the list of your (very comprehensive!) site.

Thanks Laura. I've got a list of interviews that I still haven't added to this particular page, but they were all listed originally in the news and are now in the news archive. One day I'll get round to adding them all I hope!
Ali

I just finished watching all the Hobbit promo clips I hadn't seen already. Thanks for putting all up!

The one from the 2013 dvd London press junket on the GettyImages website where he explains what happens when he needed to go to the bathroom in his Thorin costume is hilarious. I was cheering the interviewer for asking, as I wondered about that myself ever since I saw the fat/muscle suits. "You are very patient. And you squeeze". Brings the day-to-day reality of filming home doesn't it